


Zenith of My Love for You

by Shi_Toyu



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Guilt, Happy Ending, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Injury Recovery, Love, M/M, Major Character Injury, Permanent Injury, Recovery, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 19:32:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12196227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shi_Toyu/pseuds/Shi_Toyu
Summary: After an Avengers Call that ended badly, Bucky waits at Tony's beside for his lover to awaken. He doesn't know how he's going to deliver the bad news.





	Zenith of My Love for You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amethystina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethystina/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Soldier and Genius](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12030912) by [Amethystina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethystina/pseuds/Amethystina). 



> Sorry, Amethystina... I know you don't like the angst but this was just too good for me to resist!

Bucky bent over the hand in his grasp, his forehead resting against the back of his own hand. He didn’t have the strength to raise it, despite his back protesting the odd angle. His entire body felt heavy in the chair he’d pulled up beside the hospital bed and the sounds of the various machines roared in his ears. The drip of the saline and the blood, the humming of the electronics, it was all so loud to his sensitive ears.

The steady beeping of the heart monitor blared over all of it.

Bucky had always found Tony’s heartbeat to be soothing. It had calmed and grounded him on many nights, eased away the nightmares and reminded him of what was real. He’d gotten used to hearing it at night as they lay together, or during movies, or really any time he could justify getting his ear against Tony’s chest. He just loved to hear that steady beat.

His own heart had nearly stopped when he’d put his ear to Tony’s chest just the day before and hadn’t been able to hear a thing.

The fight had been bad from the beginning, long and hard and drawn out. There’d been civilian casualties, despite their best efforts, mainly because that had been the whole goal. The group they’d been fighting, just some idiots who wanted their fifteen minutes of fame for going up against the Avengers, hadn’t been strong. Hell, they hadn’t been supers or mutants or enhanced in any way. They hadn’t even been mad scientists or evil geniuses. They’d been average outcasts, banding together with a basic knowledge of chemistry and a sick disregard for human life.

There’d been fifteen bombs throughout New York City.

Professor Xavier had helped locate them all once the group members had been captured and the Avengers had learned of their plot. The X-Men were more than happy to lend a helping hand, but it hadn’t been enough in the end. Tony had gone in with the suit to dismantle the first one while emergency personnel did their best to clear the areas around each bomb. They were working on borrowed time and weren’t willing to take any risks. JARVIS had created a guide for how to disarm the bombs real time as Tony went through that first one and they’d split up. Tony headed to a second bomb location the moment he was able.

In the end, they were actually pretty lucky that only one of the bombs had actually gone off. The teams on site later discovered that there was an error in how the timer had been attached, causing it to blow early. There _should_ have been time. _Tony_ should have had time. He hadn’t, though, and the bomb had blown up in his face, his life only saved by still being in the armor, and then the building had come down on top of him.

There’d been no answer to the team’s frantic calls over the coms and the hours it’d taken to dig him out were utter agony. Bucky’s flesh palm had been rubbed raw and bleeding from hauling away chunks of rubble, though it was healed by now. They’d had to be so careful not to cause a second collapse, which had the potential of destroying air pockets. The fact that Professor Xavier had such a hard time finding Tony’s mind to latch onto hadn’t been exactly comforting, either.

When they’d finally reached him, the suit was a mess. The eyes and arc reactor were both dark and it sent fear coursing through Bucky’s veins, even if he knew the arc reactor was no longer in Tony’s chest. The suit was splayed out in an awkward position, entirely pinned under the rubble. One of the legs had been crushed and there was blood leaking out of the cracks in the armor. Steve and Bucky had wasted little time grabbing onto the manual releases and pulling the suit off of him.

Tony had been unresponsive and his face pale, a stark contrast to the blood. God, there’d been so much blood… Bucky had pressed his ear to Tony’s chest while Steve searched for a pulse.

They’d both come up empty-handed.

Emergency services had been standing by, luckily enough, and they were on Tony a second later, nudging the two super soldiers aside and setting to work. They’d managed to get Tony’s heart restarted, somehow. Apparently, it’d only stopped moments before. The doctor had come by earlier to explain it all. The suit had been keeping pressure on Tony’s injuries. The release of that pressure and the sudden loss of blood had been what’d caused his heart to stop. If the EMT’s hadn’t been there, there wouldn’t have been anything anyone could have done.

Bucky’s chest _ached_ at the thought. He and Steve could have been the reason for Tony’s death. They _had_ killed him, even, without meaning to. They’d just been trying to help but… Bucky didn’t know what he’d do if he lost Tony. Hours and several surgeries after the fact, the guilt still gnawed at him.

Tony was going to have so much to deal with when he finally regained consciousness. Bucky’s issues shouldn’t be on that list. It wasn’t something Bucky could just let go of, though, and it only made matters worse that he didn’t know how to _fix_ it, either. Even if he set out to learn emergency medicine, there’d be no telling if that would be the information he needed to know next time. Their lives were full of too much uncertainty for there to be any guarantees.

He still hadn’t moved from his position when he felt Tony’s fingers twitch in his. Bucky’s head shot up, his eyes searching Tony’s face as it scrunched up in discomfort. He didn’t remember standing but apparently he had because he was suddenly leaning over Tony’s form, his metal hand coming up to card through short hair.

“Tony? Doll? Are you with me?”

The noise Tony made couldn’t be considered anything near coherent. His eyes blinked open moments later, though, hazy and confused. They swept across the room before finding Bucky’s face and latching on. Bucky felt downright guilty for the smile that spread across Tony’s face. He had no idea how he was going to break the news.

“Bu…”

Tony’s voice was strained, no real surprise with the amount of smoke he’d inhaled. Bucky lifted a cup of water from the bedside table and held the straw to Tony’s lips so he could drink greedily. It felt like a vice was tightening around his heart. He hated every second of it.

“I was so scared,” he found himself confessing, “when I heard the explosion. I could _feel_ the shock waves, even from so far away. Just knowing you were _there…_ ” He cut himself off and turned to set the cup of water aside. His hand trembled. “I’ve never been more uncertain if I was going to lose you than I was when we were digging you out.”

Tony’s hand squeezed his, and the genius offered up a shaky smile.

“I’m here,” he managed, though his voice was rough. “I’m still here.”

Bucky’s gut twisted.

“Not all of you is.”

The pain medication was keeping him from feeling it, but that didn’t change the way the blanket lay flat where Tony’s leg used to be.

-

The physical therapy was grueling, but Tony had never been afraid of hard work. He’d been back in the lab at the first opportunity, designing himself a new limb. He didn’t even have to do that much on the engineering, just customize. SI had long ago started up an entire line of prosthetics, thanks to Tony’s regular work on Bucky’s arm.

Bucky thought he’d go with Iron Man colors, truth be told, but the surprises never ended with Tony, it seemed. He’d proudly gathered the whole Avengers team together to show off his new leg once it was finally done and attached. Chrome plating gleamed, a red star decorating the outside of Tony’s thigh.

“I thought about putting it on the inside,” Tony said with a grin, waggling his eyebrows, “for the scandal factor, but this seemed classier.”

Clint snorted.

“Right. Because you’re so concerned about class.”

Bucky wasn’t paying any attention. He just wrapped Tony up in his arms and lifted him clear off the ground in a kiss. The others hooted and hollered, the idiots. Tony pulled back to rest their foreheads against each other, arms draped around Bucky’s shoulders.

“I take it you like it, then.”

Bucky’s hand trailed down to cover the star with his own metal hand.

“I love it,” he said seriously, “and I love you.”

Tony pressed another quick kiss to his lips.

“I love you, too. You can tell by our matching limbs. We’ll be like those old couples with the matching outfits.”

Bucky couldn’t help a bark of laughter.

“If you wanted to coordinate, all you had to do was ask.”

“Yeah, but that would just be so much less dramatic.”

There was nothing Bucky could do but kiss him again.


End file.
